Myanmar residents who had fled into China because of clashes near the border have begun to return to their homes as the situation improves, an official with the public security department of Yunnan provincial government said yesterday.

About 37,000 border inhabitants comprising both Burmese and Chinese had fled into China after armed conflicts broke out in the Kokang area of Shan state in northeastern Myanmar last week, said Meng Sutie, director of the Yunnan provincial public security department, at a press conference in Kunming yesterday.

One person was killed and two were injured after three bombs were fired from across China's border with Myanmar, Meng said. In Myanmar, one person died and 13 were injured as they tried to escape the clashes. All of them are Chinese.